Chen Zi'ang - Poetry and Works

Poetry and Works

This quote, from Chen to a friend, shows his attitude as a formative poet of the Early Period of Tang poetry:

The art of letters has been declining for five hundred years....In my leisure hours, I have looked into the poems of the Ch'i and Liang Dynasties, and I could not help sighing when I found all genuine feeling and insight were smothered by meaningless figures of speech and squeamish refinement of words. So much rhetoric and so little sentiment! When will the grand tradition of Shih Ching revive?

Chen Zi'ang is well known for his collection of thirty-eight poems "Ganyu" (感遇), written in a simpler vocabulary than typified the poetry of that time and which were heavily influenced by Daoism. He has one poem in the Three Hundred Tang Poems, translated by Witter Bynner as "On a Gate-tower at Yuzhou"

Read more about this topic:  Chen Zi'ang

Famous quotes containing the words poetry and/or works:

    The wisest definition of poetry the poet will instantly prove false by setting aside its requisitions.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    And when discipline is concerned, the parent who has to make it to the end of an eighteen-hour day—who works at a job and then takes on a second shift with the kids every night—is much more likely to adopt the survivor’s motto: “If it works, I’ll use it.” From this perspective, dads who are even slightly less involved and emphasize firm limits or character- building might as well be talking a foreign language. They just don’t get it.
    Ron Taffel (20th century)